Brett McMurphy has also tweeted the same. Florida officials pitched Chip Kelly last weekend, who opted for UCLA instead, and Scott Frost, who passed on the job. This led the search to Mullen, who has both worked at Florida and for new Gators AD Scott Stricklin.

All along, Stricklin has felt Dan Mullen was a viable option. From their time at Mississippi State, Stricklin knew what he would be getting should he choose to offer the position to Mullen. However, Stricklin felt the need to investigate other names first.

Stricklin didn’t box himself in to a certain type of search on Sunday. He may retain a search firm or he may not. He may hire a sitting head coach or he may not. He revealed one word that will guide his search: fun. In 25 years in the business of watching Florida from afar, Stricklin said, when Florida was rolling “it looked like they were having fun.”

Mullen has as much currency in molding dual-threat quarterbacks as anyone in the college game today. He turned Alex Smith into a No. 1 draft pick at Utah, turned Tim Tebow into a living legend at Florida, and found success at Mississippi State with Dak Prescott and now Nick Fitzgerald.

Florida, meanwhile, has not finished in the top half of FBS yards per play offenses since Tebow left campus after the 2009 season.

National columnist - Zach joined the staff in 2012...and has been attempting to improve Doug and Scott's writing ability ever since (to little avail). Outside of football season, you can find him watching the San Antonio Spurs reading Game of Thrones fan theories.